Longform - Page 9

With the highly anticipated film 'How to Train Your Dragon 2' set to begin a series of screenings among academic circles, we decided it was time to put pen to paper and do what biologists have failed to do for centuries -- it's time to begin surveying and classifying Draconia.

Everything we've seen so far from the new thriller 'The Signal' merely grazes the surface of what's in store for audiences. The trailers and few brief clips that have been released show a trio of young kids -- Nic (up-and-comer Brenton Thwaites...

In early 1984, the team behind ‘Ghostbusters’ was fairly confident that they had a hit. Test screenings had gone well, but for director Ivan Reitman, something was missing. What Reitman wanted was a song, only 20 seconds or so in length, near the opening of the film as the then soon-to-be Ghostbusters -- Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) –- enter the New York Public Library.

Video game movies suck. It's a scientific fact.No matter how popular it may have been among gamers, a great video game seems instantly doomed whenever it attempts to jump to the big screen. Whatever made it tick is inevitably lost in translation...

This week a very different kind of romantic comedy hits theaters -- combining the sort of incredibly human relatability we've come to expect from independent films with the classic tropes of the rom-com genre, 'Obvious Child' comes from the mind of...

With Tuesday’s announcement that Scott Derrickson will be directing 'Doctor Strange' – a character that’s considered a bit of a risk, at least by Marvel standards, but has always been a favorite of studio head Kevin Feige – it’s kind of remarkable that there’s somehow already been a Doctor Strange movie.

On the second of last night's two new episodes of 'Louie,' Louis CK's fictional counterpart and his longtime friend, Pamela, shared an incredibly unnerving moment. 'Louie' is a show that has continually pushed boundaries since season 1, particularly...

Few movie villains carry the cultural cache of Maleficent, so it's hugely disappointing that the new film that bears her name as a title goes out of its way to strip away everything that anyone has ever loved (and loved to hate) about her. 'Maleficent

For better or worse, the current status of the superhero movie can be tracked back to one film. One modestly budgeted production designed the template and set the tone for a film movement that still hasn't peaked. Some remember it fondly. Some think it got more wrong than it did right. But there's no denying it: Bryan Singer's 'X-Men' is undoubtedly one of the most important and influential films of the past two decades.

People love universes.
Or, more precisely: People love fictional universes. At least, I hear much more about the Marvel universe and the ‘Star Wars’ universe these days than our own infinitely fascinating real universe, but I digress. This isn’t inherently a bad thing – it’s not too surprising that serialized stories, which is really what we mean when we talk about universes – are popular. If a person likes a character, why shouldn’t he or she want to see more of that character?